ISLAMABAD: Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet has approved 29.72 billion rupees to provide cash assistance to 3.725 million applicants under the Ehsas Emergency Cash Programme.

The approval was granted, irrespective of provincial, regional and district quota, in ECC meeting held in Islamabad today with Prime Minister's Advisor on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in the chair.

It allowed the BISP to spend 29.72 billion rupees from its allocated budget of Rs 200 billion for 2020-21 for providing cash transfers of 12,000 rupees per beneficiary. The meeting was told that 3.151 million applicants who had applied for assistance through the SMS, were found eligible under the approved criteria but these applicants could not be provided assistance on account of provincial and district quotas.

The ECC was told that the Punjab government had already agreed to provide assistance to 700,000 of the applicants identified through SMS.